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| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - - Posts by Arwon |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35  Posts: 125/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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Originally posted by hhallahh Well, sort of. Really it just means you believe there are lots of conflicting consierations which must be balanced. Believing that some form of government-provided safety nets makes you a moralist totalitarian to the same extent that advocating "individual liberty" makes you a gun-toting anti-government kook in Montana. If you want to help the poor, here's a word: Charity. Maybe the government can even run a charity. For if man really was social and cared for "communal-good-minded notions", wouldn't he gladly donate a portion of his wages to charity regardless of the presence of coercive forces? Wouldn't I give my Porsche to the man who wanted a health plan so that he wouldn't steal it? If that's the case, why do you need taxes at all? Uh, because while that sounds nice and reasonable, people are, broadly, lazy and not real nice? And it already didn't work that well anyway. (See also: the 19th century) |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 126/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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 This is the reason. Maybe This too. (edited by Arwon on 09-11-04 01:58 AM) |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 127/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Given that property rights are protected and enforced by the government and its law enforcement and legal systems (go on, try and protect your propety rights in a place with no government...), they're not so much being violated as paid for or bought-off. It's not so much a matter of choosing one or the other, but rather in believing in the maximum possible useful degree of both - individual freedoms and, let's call it, "social justice". And since modern western civilisation has managed to come up with a system that with some faults has both - that's pretty strong grounds for believing in it. Why do I have to pick one principle and apply it everywhere? That's just inviting inconsistancy and sloppiness and wrongness. I don't have much time for fussy, picky, absolutist ideologies for this reason - because they're all so simplistic and unworkable. (edited by Arwon on 09-11-04 05:43 AM) |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 128/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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Originally posted by Ailura I've done that job, at the San Diego Zoo. It's not too bad really, as far as low-paying temporary jobs go. It's unusual and interesting and, at least where I worked, attracted an interesting (read: wierd) crowd of people. Fun experience. Sweating is a pain in the ass (especially when "Big Fat Christian Loser" Andy was working, because he stank and claimed to be allergic to the cleaning spray). But, more than the heat, personally I hated how every second person said "YOU MUST BE HOT IN THERE" like they were being sympathetic or insightful or somesuch nonsense. It was annoying. People can be staggeringly unoriginal creatures. Anyways - you're only out there for a short time, and you get substantial breaks in between each bit of time in the suit, so the heat isn't so bad. Gotta keep hydrated though. Picture of me on the job. I'm Digby The Naked Mole-Rat in that photo. Goofy looking thing, so it meant it was really hard to not scare kids. I got the hang of being super-cute though, and was apparently the only one that enjoyed, and was good at, being that particular character. The key with the job in general is that you have to exaggerate all movements, since you're playing a "larger than life" character. Otherwise you look creepy, lurching around not moving much, like a brightly coloured zombie. (edited by Arwon on 09-11-04 11:28 AM) |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 129/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Well it ain't so much based on my emotions and morals so much it is based on the rough average of everybody's, kinda balanced out and stuff. At least, that's how democratic government is supposed to work... It's obviously a massively inexact science, laggy, and unevenly applied, but we didn't just arrive at the current set-up(s) arbitrarily. Again I'm gonna fall back on my conception of society consisting of a bunch of different people, elements, ideas and interests, pulling in all different directions, and the resulting morass being functional and more or less adequate. There is, of course, also a sound economic argument in favour of redistribution of income - that it aids higher economic growth. This is because the Marginal Propensity to Consume (spend) is higher for lower income earners - they spend a greater portion of their income than higher income earners who tend to save more. Thus, by reducing income inequality with redistributive policies (like pensions and welfare and youth allowance and u/e benefits, so the theory goes that you'll raise the total percentage of national income that is spent... and get a higher growth rate, as aggregate demand (GDP) increases faster. Obviously you can't take this to its logical extremes, but in moderation it's pretty sound, if you buy the whole "higher growth is automatically better" thing. There's also, I suppose, a productivity argument - healthy, non-exhausted workers are more productive workers, etc. I believe this (lower inequality leads to higher growth) can be roughly demonstrated by comparing third world growth rates and their Lorenz Curves/Gini coefficients (2 different measurements of the degree of inequality in an economy) though I'd hesitate to do so because countries are all different and have different economies and stuff. Now, don't get me wrong here - I voted for America after all. But you seem to be arguing that Sweden should be collapsing from cognitive dissonance or something, which obviously isn't happening. (edited by Arwon on 09-11-04 11:45 AM) |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 130/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| See, I'm somewhat skeptical of this "growth obsession" myself, for the obvious reason that the opportunity cost of growth is environmental damage. Limited resources, exponential growth - it's absurdly unsustainable. "Unrestrained growth is the philosophy of a cancer cell" and all that. First thought upon reading that quote - people voted for Margaret Thatcher didn't they? |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 131/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Talking Heads-esque, I should hope. Failing that - I'd be in Generic-Devo-Influenced-Band Number 126657. | |||
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 132/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Nothing for this year, but starting February, I'll be doing "International Studies" at the Uni of NSW in Sydney. Probably will choose Spanish as the language, and thus focus on the Spanish speaking world for the other parts of the degree. This will, assuming I don't fail in the meantime, lead to an exchange program in about 3 years to a Spanish-speaking country (Chile, Mexico or Spain, most likely) | |||
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 133/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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Originally posted by Legion I think they do something akin to that in France - a high degree of separation between the religious and civil/contractual aspects of marriage. Except they haven't extended civil unions to gay folks, I think. |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 134/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Manic Street Preachers. I'll go for established good pop over flash in the pan style and swagger here. Franz Ferdinand, while pretty much un-dislikeable, and despite David Byrne saying they actually remind him of Talking Heads, have yet to show me that they are anytihng other than just hipness and style. They're not bad or offensively derivative... I'm just wary of anything this hyped and only time will tell how they manage. |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 135/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Godsmack are awful, Cake are inoffensive, Cake sneaks through to the next round in a victory of decency and common sense over shitty "alt-metal" drivel. | |||
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 136/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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Originally posted by Ernestopheles A really snide part of me wants to say "you're missing the point here" or "there aren't any" or something. But the truth is I don't know because my allegiences in that era and location tends more towards the Talkings Headses, the Televisions, and the Blondies of the era. |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 137/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| I'm pretty sure, for what it worth, that humans would taste roughly like pork and other pig products. | |||
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 138/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Why is there a Melbourne in Florida!? | |||
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 139/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Yeah.... from countries older than you. But we are younger! | |||
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 140/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| "There's not bad music, only different tastes" or some variation, is an opinion I often see expressed, usually by people with a passing and limited knowledge or interest in music. OK, thats fine, not everyone cares that much about music very much. But at any rate, I say bullshit, there's both. Bullshit there's not bad music. Music is the same as any medium of human expression - a significant portion of it is uninteresting, repetitive, trite, and just plain bad. Yeah, people can like bad music - hell, in this era of kitsch, irony and cultural slumming it's almost the new "good music" - but that doesn't make it good by any decent artistic or aesthetic measure. That's not to say that opinions don't vary between people, and it's not to say that there's an objectively definable heirarchy of "good" and bad" - there's not, these things only exist within a vague spectrum. But the spectrum of "good" and "bad" DOES exist in its own vague way, and different people's views have a different degree of clout in judging this. If you're 13 and only listen to Godsmack, your views are, to be frank, not worth as much in the grand scheme of "artistic judgement" as, say, people who review music for a living, or are serious musicians, or even more knowledgable and experienced fans. Thus you can't quantify how "good" or "bad" Godsmack are but you *can* pretty much assume that, say, the Pixies or the Clash are better than them, even if you can't quantify how much exactly. This is because though there's no objective measurable ladder, there is a vague spectrum and Godsmack are quite clearly at the "Bad" end of it while the Clash and the Pixies are generlaly agreed tob e towards the "Good". This argument isn't intended to cover much finer points of difference (ie, when you're talking about diffrerent artists with decent "cred", for example, is Lou Reed better than David Bowie?), but is useful in explaining why, say, Creed fucking suck but Outkast don't. People will accept that there's plenty of terrible books produced, there's plenty of awful movies, horrible weblogs and worthless websites. They'll accept that a classical pianist is in a better position to judge good and bad classical music than a layman, they'll accept that an author or librarian's views about what is good literature is more valid than a 15 year old kid. They'll accept that someone in IT knows websites better than they. In every field of human media there are both observably "good" examples and observably "awful" examples and some people are in a better position to tell this. Why is music any different? That's not snobbery, it's reality. (edited by Arwon on 09-23-04 04:41 AM) (edited by Arwon on 09-23-04 04:44 AM) (edited by Arwon on 09-23-04 04:58 AM) (edited by Arwon on 09-23-04 05:02 AM) |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 141/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Well the 'bats aren't really much of a ska band these days. They've been gradually turning into a Devo-esque band for years, now and the process is nearly complete. But yeah, I like the 'Bats and the Specials and that's about it. Anyone heard the Skatalites, the Jamaican band from the 1960s that INVENTED ska? |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 142/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| They probably just added some extra tracks to the CD they gave you then? I do that when I make copies of CDs for people - give 'em an album then stick some other tracks by the same band at the end. And yes, California is indeed grand. |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 143/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| Scrolling through my Ipod I find the following good albums from 2004: 90 Day Men - Panda Park Air - Talkie Walkie Animal Collective - Sung Tongs David Byrne - Grown Backwards the Dissappointments - Making Merry with... Les Savy Fav - Inches Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News TV On The Radio - Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes So those'd be my favourites, since they're about the only albums released this year I've actually listened to very much. Still not sure about 'Good News' - a lot of it sounds rather awkward and forced and halfassed amd just not as good as the previous 2 or 3 albums. David Byrne's new one, I only have half of, in MP3 format, but it's a really strong set of songs from an old master whom I happen to nearly worship. It is amazing how well the man has aged, when you consider the devolution of so many other artists in their latter years. Les Savy Fav continue to improve with every release. Pure balls-out energetic rock, yet still manages to sound original and interesting. Absolutely can't bloody wait for their tour down here in November and see that big bald shirtless man get all sweaty and crazy. Apart from those, Animal Collective and Air both grabbed and held my attention pretty damn quickly, and the 90 Day Men (semi-obscure San Diego band), for the second or third time, managed to sound like a completely different band to their previous albums. Not too shabby a year, really. (edited by Arwon on 09-30-04 08:03 AM) (edited by Arwon on 09-30-04 08:05 AM) |
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Arwon Zora Level: 35 Posts: 144/506 EXP: 278115 For next: 1821 Since: 03-15-04 From: Terra Australis Incognita Since last post: 5 hours Last activity: 10 min. |
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| "Automatic for the People" was a better album than anything Foo Fighters have accomplished. Stipe and his boys, though they've descended into egotism and adult contemporary drivel of late (Imitation of Life? What were you thinking, Michael?), have a quality and quantity of work that leaves Grohl and his boys in the dust. Everybody Hurts, Welcome to the Occupation, Nightswimming, End of the World as we Know it, Man on the Moon, Radio Free Europe, Losing My Religion... just too classy for too long. |
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| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - - Posts by Arwon |
